From 38b59a2e06c0ae3865da98923d1a4b18ee44058f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: selenaz03 The Legacy Project’s Origin
+ The concept of The Legacy Project (TLP) began in 2018, when Arielle
+ Galinsky, a high school junior at the time, spent her time working at a
+ local senior community in her Massachusetts hometown. Her role allowed
+ her to interact with the residents, which she greatly enjoyed, yet she
+ always left her shift with a strong desire to learn more about the
+ stories of the seniors she met. With this strong curiosity, paired with
+ a deep sense of regret she felt having lost her own grandfathers at a
+ young age, Arielle decided to spearhead TLP as a personal project.{" "}
+ Parallel Stories Unite
+ Little did she know that, in the state over from her,{" "}
+ Katie Furey- a sophomore in college who was home for
+ the pandemic- started a similar project of her own. Katie had always
+ been close with her grandmother, Mary, who was living in a nursing home
+ at the time of the pandemic. When Katie and her family would visit Mary
+ and her neighbors from outside the window of the nursing home, waving
+ frantically through the glass and chatting on the phone, Katie wished
+ there was a way for young people like herself to connect more deeply
+ with these wonderful people on the other side of the glass who were
+ experiencing a loneliness perhaps even more pronounced than the
+ loneliness Katie and her peers were facing as the pandemic escalated.
+ Collaboration and Expansion
+ Arielle and Katie met in 2020, quickly connecting over their aligned
+ passions to build intergenerational connections, provide a platform for
+ local seniors to share their stories, and preserve such histories
+ through their collective love for writing.
+ TLP’s National Vision
+ Having watched the Tufts chapter grow over the past two years, Arielle,
+ Katie, and Wanda decided to found TLP as a nonprofit organization with
+ the goal of spreading their mission across the country: preserving
+ stories of seniors who might not otherwise have the opportunity to.
+
+
+ The initiative encompassed conducting thorough interviews of 18
+ residents living in the community, with the intention to hold a ceremony
+ at the finale of the project to provide her older friends with the
+ opportunity to share their stories with their families. When the
+ COVID-19 pandemic hit, Arielle pivoted, and decided the best way to
+ preserve the 18 captivating stories of the seniors she interviewed was
+ through prose.{" "}
+
+
+ The United Nations Millennium Fellowship being hosted through
+ Tufts University presented a perfect opportunity for Katie to put her
+ idea into action. Using the program’s framework, Katie partnered with
+ the
+ Little Sisters of the Poor home in{" "}
+ Enfield, Connecticut. Katie met around ten older adults from
+ the home on Zoom, connecting with them and learning tidbits of their
+ life stories, which she is working on compiling as a series of
+ vignettes.
+
+
+ They decided to start the Tufts Legacy Project, a
+ chapter of The Legacy Project based out of{" "}
+ Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, with the
+ goal of connecting college students one-on-one with older adults living
+ in the communities of Medford and Somerville.
+
+
+ When Katie decided to join the Millennium Fellowship for a second year,
+ she met Wanda Schlumpf, a sophomore at Tufts, who was similarly
+ dedicated to the value of storytelling. Wanda took on the project with
+ her and joined the Tufts TLP chapter as a founding member. Together, the
+ three women helped to build it into an organization of nearly 30
+ students passionate about empowering local seniors with the platform to
+ amplify their stories.
+
+
+ TLP seeks to build sustainable, intergenerational connections as a means
+ to combat social isolation, preserve the life histories of older adults,
+ engage young individuals in revolutionizing perspectives on aging, and
+ ensure that every old adult - regardless of background - has the
+ opportunity to share their experiences.
+
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